Champions League draw: Liverpool face Manchester City in quarter-finals

Manchester City will face Liverpool in the Champions League quarter-final.

Liverpool inflicted City’s only Premier League defeat of the season at Anfield on 14 January, after they were thumped 5-0 at Etihad Stadium in September.

The first leg is at Anfield on 4 April, with the return on 10 April.

After City’s director of football Txiki Begiristain said: “It’s going to be a great couple of games,” Reds manager Jurgen Klopp added: “I saw his face. He didn’t look like it was Christmas.”

Holders Real Madrid will face Italian champions Juventus – a repeat of the 2017 final which Real won 4-1 in Cardiff.

La Liga leaders Barcelona, who are looking to win the Champions League for the first time since 2015, face Roma, while Sevilla, who beat Manchester United 2-1 on aggregate in the previous round, take on five-time European champions Bayern Munich.

Clash of the Premier League free-scorers

The tie between Liverpool and Manchester City will be the first meeting between Premier league sides in the Champions League quarter-finals since 2010-11 when Chelsea faced Manchester United.

On that occasion, United advanced 3-1 on aggregate on their way to the final which they lost 3-1 to Barcelona at Wembley.

Friday’s draw means one Premier League club is guaranteed a place in the semi-finals.

City are 21 points clear of fourth-placed Liverpool in the table.

They are the top two scorers in the Premier League, with City finding the net 85 times in 30 games. Liverpool have scored 68 goals from the same number of matches.

“I really don’t mind. I knew it would be difficult and that is difficult,” said Klopp when asked about the drawon Friday.

“The good news is for Manchester City it will be difficult as well.”

“We are for sure not the favourites in this round, but in the last eight there are not a lot of favourites – maybe two of them, Bayern and Barcelona.”

‘We know the power and strength of Liverpool’

While Liverpool have been crowned champions of Europe five times in their history, City are chasing their first Champions League success.

“It’s a very difficult one,” added Begiristain.

“We like to travel and to go to another country in the Champions League but it is what it is.